Originally posted on tom hobson | the dreary mantle: A recent installment of The Inquiry asked “Can we teach robots ethics”? The discussion in the episode provides some really interesting food for thought. Anyway, it reminded me that, for a while, I’ve wanted to write about something that troubles me in discussions of AI, and particularly military…

Originally posted on tom hobson | the dreary mantle: I’ve written on this subject before (at considerably more length) but I wanted to offer a couple of reflections on responsibility and the “ethical moment” in war… I recently rewatched the rather brilliant (and long – oh, so very long) The Cruel Sea. In one of the films most…

Originally posted on tom hobson | the dreary mantle: I’ve spent my day off with this wonderful biography of J Robert Oppenheimer. This quotation, on cruelty and responsibility is particularly striking, I think… dav

This week I am off to Hanover to a meeting on genome editing and biosecurity. I intend post some of my notes on this event over the next few days. Below is a poster on misuse concerns; something which paticipants were asked to put together. Hopefully this will be useful to newcomers in this area. … Continue reading →

If you have not seen the 2017 film ‘Carnage’ you are probably not alone- but it might be worth a watch. This film depicts a futuristic vegan society coming to terms with its meat eating past. It captures the transition quite well- recapping the campaigns which led society to abandon meat and for the taboo against … Continue reading →

When the news of the latest advance in human genome editing broke I by happenstance was reading this vividly written book by Christopher Coker, called ‘Future War’- and he reminded me of this theory developed in the late 1970’s by a then obscure academic called David Collingridge. Collingridge argues that humankind currently finds itself … Continue reading →